Anaximenes of Miletus

Anaximenes of Miletus (585 BC-528 BC) was a Presocratic Greek philosopher who was a student of Anaximander.

Biography
Anaximenes was born in Miletus, Asia Minor in 585 BC to a Greek family, and he was a student and younger friend of Anaximander, who influenced his views on philosophy. Anaximenes asserted that air was the primary substance of which all other things are made, concluding that the cooling of condensed air formed earth and ultimately stones. Anaximenes thus argued that stars were formed when Earth released rarefied air, and he believed that the Moon and Sun were flat and were floating on streams of air. He asserted that earthquakes were caused either by a lack of moisture or a superabundance of water, both of which caused cracks in the Earth. He died around 528 BC.